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PRESEN I : h ID 



7 









CARL SCHURZ 









ADDRESSES IN MEMORY 

OF 

CARL SCHURZ 



CARNEGIE HALL NEW YORK 
NOVEMBER 21 

1906 



NEW YORK COMMITTEE OF THE 
CARL SCHURZ MEMORIAL 









QoaI S yUuAA 1 \J\jA 14/. S^WU 

■ 



CARL SCHURZ died in New York City May 14, 
1906, in the seventy-eighth year of his age„ On 
June 8, a meeting of citizens of New York was 
held at the Chamber of Commerce, to take measures 
to honor his memory. A committee was formed to 
cooperate with similar committees in other parts of the 
country in establishing a permanent public memorial 
to Mr. Schurz, and to hold in New York a fitting 
memorial meeting. This meeting was held at Carnegie 
Hall on the evening of Wednesday, November 21, 
1906, the Honorable Joseph H. Choate, Chairman of 
the New York Committee, presiding. 

The speakers were the Honorable Grover Cleveland, 
former President of the United States ; Dr. Charles 
W. Eliot, President of Harvard University; Professor 
Eugene Kuhnemann, of the University of Breslau ; 
the Honorable Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the 
Navy ; Mr. Richard Watson Gilder, Editor of the 
Century Magazine ; Professor Hermann A Schumacher, 
of the University of Bonn ; and Dr. Booker T. Wash- 
ington, of Tuskegee Institute. 

The music included choruses in German, sung by 
the Liederkranz and Arion societies, and the march 
from Die Gotterdammerung and the prelude to Die 
Meistersinger, by the New York Symphony Orchestra, 
led by Frank Damrosch. 

The full proceedings are printed in the pages 
following; : 



T 



ADDRESS OF THE 
HONORABLE JOSEPH H. CHOATE 

"^HIS great and brilliant company has assembled for no 
funereal rites, for no obituary service. We are here to 
do honor to the memory of a great citizen, to exult 
in his exalted virtues, and to learn the lesson of patriotism from 
his long and honorable life. A noble friend of mine, dying, said 
that his life seemed like the flight of a bird through a church 
from window to window, and at best it is 

" Short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun." 
And our sketches of Carl Schurz to-night must be short indeed 
if we would do justice to this splendid program, and enjoy the 
music which he loved so much better than words, however 

weighty. 

I heard Mr. Lincoln at the Cooper Institute in i860 say: 
"Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let 
us dare to do our duty as we understand it." Search all the 
books in all our libraries, and you can find no better statement 
of Mr. Schurz's rule of life than this. Truth, right, duty, freedom 
were the four corners of his chart of life, with which all his 
speech and conduct squared. And so it was from the beginning 
to the end. In the first freshness of youth he left the university 
and joined the Revolution of 1848, and fought to break oppres- 
sion and maintain constitutional liberty. In that marvelous 
achievement of daring and devotion by which at the deadly peril 
of his own life he rescued his old teacher and comrade from the 
fortress in which he had been condemned for life to pick oakum 
for the Prussian Government, he furnished to the world a heroic 
romance, worthy to be immortalized by a new Schiller, a miracle 
long since celebrated, and always to be celebrated in German 
poetry and song. A refugee from hopeless tyranny, he came 
here into exile and made America his home. He was himself 

[7] 



the choicest example of that splendid host of Germans who have 
enriched and strengthened and fertilized our native stock, to 
produce that composite creature, the latest result of time, the 
blending of all the Caucasian races — the New American. 

With intense devotion he applied himself to mastering the 
English language, that he might with free speech utter free 
thought to free men throughout the whole land of his adoption. 
The year before the arrival of Mr. Schurz I had heard Kossuth 
himself, who in a few months had learned the English language 
in an Austrian dungeon, deliver to a Harvard audience an ad- 
dress in our own tongue. But Mr. Schurz as a linguist surpassed 
even Kossuth, for he soon became one of our foremost orators, 
perhaps the most cogent and convincing debater of his time; 
and if his hearers shut their eyes and trusted only to their ears 
they might well believe that he had never spoken any language 
but our own. 

With an inherent instinct for freedom, he was at one with 
Lincoln, that "a house divided against itself must fall, and that 
this government could not permanently endure half slave and 
half free," and so he took part in German in that great debate 
with Douglas, and made the vast hosts of his countrymen in the 
West familiar with the vital issue in that irrepressible conflict. 
In the convention of i860 that nominated Lincoln, he in- 
sisted successfully, with Curtis, upon incorporating in the plat- 
form the cardinal principles of the Declaration of Independence. 
When the war broke out, and it became manifest that the 
Gordian knot of slavery could be cut only by the sword, he re- 
signed the lazy post of Minister to Spain, and on many a bloody 
field — at Manassas, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Chatta- 
nooga — with dauntless skill and courage he fought for freedom 
here as he had fought for it at home. 

As a senator I think he made the noblest record of his noble 
life. There his genius, his courage, his humanity, and his pa- 
triotism had full play. There politics, patronage, the chance of 
re-election were nothing to him. He was there not to serve his 
State only, but the whole country, in the true spirit of Burke's 
letter to the electors of Bristol. With exhaustless energy he 

[8] 



mastered every important question, and led in a great debate, 
and regarded the foundations of the Constitution as of vastly 
greater importance than any ephemeral question of the day, how- 
ever burning. He always stood by these great landmarks, that 
the executive should keep within its constitutional limits, and 
not invade by one hair's breadth the functions of the legislature 
or judiciary, and that they should do the like by it, and above 
all that the Federal power should not encroach upon the State 
power, nor this upon that, but each keep within its own limits, 
that the delicate balance of our dual system, which has justly 
excited the wonder and admiration of the world, might not be 
disturbed. Oh, for such a senator now! What would not this 
great Empire State give for one such man — for two such men, 
if happily they could be found! 

As a Cabinet Minister, too, his record is a noble one. Politics 
and politicians he turned "neck and heels" out of his depart- 
ment, and made tenure of office there depend only upon merit 
and fitness. Frauds and plunderers found in him their most 
dangerous foe. He was a real father to the Indian tribes and 
fought in defence of our vast forest domains that were then 
already falling victims to robbers. In short, it is sufficient to 
say of him that his administration of the department of the 
Interior is only equalled by that of his distinguished successor, 
Mr. Hitchcock, who now after six years of service is retiring, 
carrying with him imperishable laurels. 

Compelled by the exigencies of our political system to abstain 
from holding public office during the last twenty years of his life, 
his independence, his courage, his rpotless character, and bound- 
less knowledge of affairs have been of vast service to his country. 
Taking up the reins of the Civil Service Reform from the dying 
hands of one who in this city and in such a company as this will 
ever be held in fond remembrance — George William Curtis — he 
carried it to its present advanced state, and has thereby done 
inestimable good. A fearless foe of every wrong, an independent 
champion of every wise reform, setting personal consequence 
always at defiance where public service was concerned, he has 
left to the young Americans of the present and the future an 

[9] 



example of honesty, courage, and patriotism ; a richer legacy than 
if he had been able to transmit to them, or to each of them, the 
combined wealth of all the millionaires of the land. Truly, to 
recall again the words of Lincoln, he had faith that right makes 
might, and he dared to the end to do his duty as he under- 
stood it. 



The Chairman: 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have now the rare felicity of pre- 
senting to you the foremost citizen of our Republic: 



[10] 



ADDRESS OF THE 
HONORABLE GROVER CLEVELAND 

WHATEVER death may be to the dead, to the living 
it always means a loss. The enforcement of its inex- 
orable decrees reaches humanity in every corner of 
the globe; and the hearts of all who live bear in painful scars 
the sad record of its visitations. The widow and the fatherless 
are always with us; and we see on every hand the dearest ties 
of love and friendship wrenched and broken by the insatiate foe 
of mortality. But we know this is our common fate, and that 
Divine mercy will heal and comfort these personal afflictions. 
And those who devoutly study the ways of God with man will 
gain a conception of the Infinite wisdom which has ordained 
that the wounds and losses inevitably and universally inflicted 
by death upon our individual lives, shall be the clarifying and 
purifying solvents which balance and strengthen the complex 
elements of human nature, by chastening with "the sabler tints 
of woe " the activities and delights of our existence. 

These reflections are merely a suggestive background for the 
sentiments that befit this occasion. There are lives that occupy 
a larger area than that of individual association, and there are 
men who not only embrace within their affections all who need 
help, but whose course of life points out the way to honor and 
usefulness, and illustrates the grandeur of a career devoted for 
the public good. In our Republic the death of such a man is a 
direct loss to good citizenship and a hurt to our nationality — a 
loss more irreparable than kinship can suffer, and a hurt more 
grievous than personal sorrow can inflict. 

It is the apprehension of this truth that has drawn together 
here to-night the intimate friends of Carl Schurz, who have 
brought tender recollections of his affectionate traits, and also 
many others who knew him less intimately but loved him none 

["] 



the less for what he was and what he did within the sphere of 
patriotic endeavor. And we are all here to do honor to his 
memory, and in this way to likewise honor ourselves and mani- 
fest our appreciation of pure and unselfish love of country. 

It would by no means be entirely out of keeping with the 
occasion to extol the courage of battlefields where patriotism 
exacts the giving up of human lives for country's sake. But 
this physical courage is so much a part of our national character 
that its recognition is universal and its stimulation is not among 
our country's needs. What our nation needs — and sorely needs — 
is more of the patriotism that is born of moral courage — the 
courage that attacks abuses, and struggles for civic reforms 
single handed, without counting opposing numbers or measuring 
opposing forces. It is this kind of courage, and the great public 
service that has been rendered under its inspiration, that we 
memorialize to-night; and an undisturbed contemplation of its 
heroism and saving attributes are most in sympathy with the 
spirit that should pervade this assemblage. 

I believe that the man whose memory we honor never knew 
moral fear, and never felt the sickening weakness of moral 
cowardice. With him it was only to see what he believed to be 
injustice or error, to hurl himself upon its defences with the 
impetuosity of a zealot and the endurance of a martyr. He did 
not shun politics; but in his conception, political activity was 
valuable and honorable only as it led the way to the performance 
of civic duty and had for its end and purpose the advancement 
of principles and the enforcement of practices that best promoted 
the public good. He had no toleration for the over-nice foppery 
that drives many who claim patriotic impulses away from politics 
through fear of contaminating defilement. He entered politics 
because he saw his duty there; and he found immunity from de- 
filement in cleansing and purifying his political surroundings. 

In recognition of the affirmation that ours is a government by 
party, he did not disparage political organization, or hold himself 
aloof from party affiliation. He assumed party relationship as 
an arrangement for united effort in the accomplishment of pur- 
poses which his judgment approved; but he never conceded to 

["] 



party allegiance the infallible guidance of political thought, nor 
the unquestioned dictatorship of political conduct. He believed 
there was a higher law for both, and the din of party could not 
deafen his ears to the still small voice of conscience. Thus it 
happened that when party commands were most imperious and 
when punishment for party disobedience was most loudly 
threatened, he defiantly proclaimed under the sanction of 
conscience, untrammelled political thought and unfettered 
political action; and thus in the propaganda of political individ- 
ualism he became a leader, and taught by precept and example 
the meaning and intent of independent voting. 

Many are willing to defer to party control and guidance, and 
many are willing for the sake of party to subordinate their per- 
sonal judgment and belief. Some are so prejudiced by the 
bigotry of sheer partisanship that they find it impossible to con- 
done insubordination to party discipline. These conditions 
should not be too readily condemned. They may be largely 
attributable to temperament and environment. But no intelli- 
gently patriotic citizen can be blind to the fact, very recently 
more conclusively established than ever, that the political inde- 
pendence declared and illustrated by Carl Schurz has become a 
defence and safeguard of the people against the evils that result 
from the unchallenged growth of irresponsive party manage- 
ment. 

Political organizations will always be a factor in the equip- 
ment and conduct of our government, and as long as parties 
exist there will be party leaders. But every thoughtful man who 
loves his country ought to realize in this time of political 
awakening that the public welfare demands that parties should 
be in purpose and mission something better than mere machines 
to serve selfishness and the ends of low and perverted partisan- 
ship; nor should any fail to detect the humiliation and disgrace 
that attaches to those who follow party leadership after it has 
grown to partisan dictatorship and become a thing of proprietary 
control, prostituted to the uses of base bargaining and treach- 
erous schemes. No one can know so little of partisan human 
nature as to suppose that an honest voter thus threatened with 

[*3] 



betrayal or disgrace in his party relationship can save his honor 
and political integrity by any less radical remedy than loud 
protest or open desertion. 

These things are easily said; and they are easily accepted, as 
long as they only flatter a self-complacent idleness of political 
virtue. It is not the mere slothful acceptance of righteous 
political ideas, but the call to action for their enforcement and 
application that tests the endurance and moral courage of men. 
He who sees the emergency and moves to the front where blows 
are given and taken must expect that but few of the thousands 
who speak bravely will be at his side. 

Mr. Schurz had the keenest possible apprehension of this and 
of all else that he would meet in the path he had entered upon. 
He was able to meet with calm defiance the denunciation and 
ostracism of partisanship; and he was able to meet with undis- 
guised contempt the abuse and threats of party sordidness and 
self-seeking. But he was obliged to suffer acutely and in silent 
resignation from the misconception of his efforts and even his 
motives by friends he loved, and from the distrustful misgivings 
of those whose judgment he greatly valued. And still he held 
his way — brave beyond the reach of moral fear, and confident 
beyond the reach of discouragement. 

Those of us who boast that we are Americans by heredity 
should not forget that he who thus wrought for the betterment 
of our nation's political ideas and practice was of foreign birth. 
And let us remember, too, with admiring appreciation, that while 
he never allowed his loving memory of his fatherland to fade, he 
at the same time earned imperishable honor in his newer citizen- 
ship, and added lustre to the patriotism of his nature by unre- 
served devotion and fidelity to his American allegiance. If his 
noble example and service suggest a home-thrusting contrast, 
they should especially incite to better duty and more political 
solicitude those claiming by birthright an advanced place in our 
citizenship. And all of us should take to heart the broad and 
impressive lesson taught to every American citizen by the life 
and career of Carl Schurz. It is the lesson of moral courage, of 
intelligent and conscientious patriotism, of independent political 



thought, of unselfish political affiliation, and of constant political 
vigilance. 



The Chairman: 

As you know, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Schurz was an 
adopted son of Harvard, an institution which conferred upon 
him its highest honor, and to which he sent both his sons to be 
educated, where he was the President of the Germanic Museum 
Society, and whose classic shades he loved to visit. I can assure 
you that the respect and esteem was more than fully recipro- 
cated, and I have the very great pleasure of presenting to you 
President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University: 



[i5] 



ADDRESS OF 
PRESIDENT CHARLES W. ELIOT 

CARL SCHURZ'S temperament was buoyant, ardent, and 
hopeful. He was an enthusiast; but his enthusiastic 
faith carried him straight into fitting deeds. He was a 
philosopher; but he seized every opportunity to apply his phil- 
osophy in action. This noble temperament characterized his 
whole life, from youth to age. His formal or systematic edu- 
cation was short, but effective. He was only seventeen years old 
when he entered the University of Bonn to study philosophy 
and history — two subjects which, according to present educa- 
tional views, require a good deal of mental maturity. At twenty 
he was an adjutant in a considerable body of revolutionary 
troops. At twenty-one he had rescued his friend and teacher 
Kinkel from the prison of Spandau and brought him safely to 
England — an achievement which required courage, ingenuity, 
patience, and good judgment. He was already possessed of 
two means of winning an independent livelihood — good proof 
of his capacity and of the effectiveness of his education. One 
was giving music lessons, and the other was writing letters 
from abroad for German newspapers. While he was earning 
$36 a month as a newspaper correspondent in Paris he learned 
to write and speak French with ease and delicacy, thus giving 
a striking illustration of his remarkable powers in language. 
At twenty-three he came with his wife of eighteen to the United 
States, seeking freedom in a land where political freedom 
had been a natural growth. Switzerland had been his first 
refuge, England his second, and republican France — soon to 
become imperial France — his third; America was henceforth his 
country, and what led him thither was the passion for liberty. 
Neither he nor his wife could understand spoken English when 

[16] 



they landed in New York. He immediately began to read news- 
papers and novels, historical and political essays, and Black- 
stone's Commentaries, using the dictionary incessantly, but 
making little use of an English grammar. He also followed a 
method strikingly like that which Benjamin Franklin devised for 
acquiring a thorough knowledge of a language — even of the 
mother tongue. He translated many of the Letters of Junius 
into German and back again into English, and compared this 
retranslation with the English original. He wrote diligently in 
English, always reading over and revising what he had written. 
In less than six months he could talk easily in English and write 
a good letter. This achievement was the more remarkable 
because he and his wife associated chiefly with recently 
immigrated Germans. He was also studying industriously the 
political history and institutions of the country and its social 
conditions. His contemporary observations on American con- 
ditions of life show remarkable insight and sagacity. He 
saw clearly that political freedom means freedom to be feeble, 
foolish, and sinful in public affairs, as well as freedom to be 
strong, wise, and good. He saw that the object of political 
freedom is to develop character in millions of free men 
through the suffering which follows mistakes and crimes, and 
through the satisfaction and improvement which follows on 
public wisdom and righteousness. He saw clearly the product- 
iveness of freedom through the spontaneous cooperation of 
private citizens. He saw how freedom to do something awakens 
the desire and develops the capacity to do it. In short, this 
sanguine young foreigner, who had no experience whatever of 
democracy at work, saw clearly that a republic is not an ideal 
state, but a state in which good contends with evil, and the people 
themselves, and not a few masters of the people do the fighting, 
and so get instruction both from defeats through folly and vice 
and from victories through good sense and virtue. He saw that 
the actual political, industrial, and social conditions in a republic 
might, like the actual issue of a single individual's struggles, 
often be far below ideal conditions, and yet freedom to do wrong 
or to do right would remain the best possible atmosphere, indeed 

[*7] 



the only atmosphere, for national as for individual growth in 
virtue. He also perceived that democratic government could be 
various and elastic, and that it had indefinite recuperative power 
after disaster. The whole of his subsequent career as a public 
man was based on these convictions of his youth. Thirty-five 
years later appeared his " Life of Henry Clay," his largest piece 
of literary work. It is much more than a life of Clay, being also 
a powerful delineation in rapid outlines of the political history 
of fifty pregnant years. Its style is simple, clear, and fluent, its 
judgment of men and public acts temperate and impartial, and 
its moral teaching always both lofty and attractive. No biog- 
raphy of an American public man has been written with greater 
discernment, candor, and fairness. That it was written by a 
German who came to this country at twenty-three years of age, 
after practical experience of the crude and visionary revolution- 
ism of Europe in 1848, and then entered on the study of the 
English language and of American political principles, is an 
intellectual and moral marvel. It demonstrates the consistency 
and continuity of Carl Schurz's own principles of political action 
from youth to age. 

Schurz at once attached himself to the liberal or progressive 
side in American politics, and in the first instance to the anti- 
slavery cause. What gave him power to serve greatly the cause 
of freedom was his gift of genuine oratory, both in English and 
in German. His command of English for purposes of public 
speech was extraordinary. I have listened to many scholars and 
lecturers of foreign birth speaking in English after years of 
familiar use of the English tongue, but I have never heard one 
who approached Carl Schurz in the accuracy, variety, and idio- 
matic quality of his English speech. In his essays and speeches 
one may find occasionally a word which a native would hardly 
use in the sense in which he uses it, but the most attentive critic 
will fail to find ungrammatical phrases or misused idioms. Now 
and bhen a sentence will recall by its length the German style; 
but its order, inflection, and rhythm will be English. His ora- 
tory was never florid or rhetorical as distinguished from logical. 
On the contrary, it was compact, simple, and eminently moderate 

[18] 



in form and rational in substance. He could be severe, but he 
was never vituperative; bold, but never reckless; he was always 
firm, with a strength based on full inquiry and knowledge. On 
every subject which he treated before the public he took the 
utmost pains to be well informed, to acquaint himself with his 
adversaries' opinions and feelings, and to be prepared alike for 
direct advocacy and for rebuttal. 

At twenty-seven years of age he was already making political 
speeches in German — speeches which contributed to carrying 
Wisconsin for Fremont. He was not thirty years old when he 
made his first political speech in English. He contributed to the 
first election of Lincoln by many speeches in German and in 
English — a service which brought him at thirty-two years of age 
the appointment as Minister to Spain. After his three years' 
service in the army during the civil war he returned for a time to 
the calling of his youth — writing for the daily press, both in Ger- 
man and English, an occupation in which his gifts had full play. 
A new theatre for his oratorical powers was opened to him when 
he took his seat in the Senate of the United States in March, 
1869, as Senator from Missouri. Here he proved his readiness 
as a debater as we'll as his power as an orator. Debate often 
brings out a fine quality which the oratorical monologue does 
not develop — namely, fairness combined with aggressiveness. 
The most persuasive debater is always the fairest debater, be- 
cause the listener who is not already a partisan is only too apt to 
be unreasonably repelled from the side which manifests unfair- 
ness, and to be sympathetically attracted toward the other side. 
The ordinary defects of American speaking — bombast, excess in 
simile and metaphor, exaggeration, and playing to the gallery — 
Carl Schurz invariably shunned. His oratory was always high- 
minded and dignified, although it ranged through all human 
moods, and could be either forcible or gentle, plain and calm, or 
dramatic and passionate. 

Schurz was always a leader of the people, because he was an 
independent thinker and a student, and because he himself 
faithfully followed ideals which had not yet become the ideals of 
the masses. In how true a sense he was a pioneer we shall 

[19] 



realize if we recall the dates of some of his great speeches. In 
a speech on civil service reform, delivered in the Senate in Janu- 
ary, 187 1, he laid down in the clearest and most impressive man- 
ner all the fundamental principles and objects of the reform — 
principles which have not yet been fully incorporated in public 
j aw — and to the close of his life he was a devoted servant of this 
great reform. Three years later he made two memorable 
speeches in the Senate on banking and against inflation of the 
currency, his admirable teaching being inspired not so much by 
his belief in the material or industrial advantages of a sound cur- 
rency as by his conviction that an unsound currency caused both 
public and private dishonesty. The country has not yet put in 
practice the whole of Schurz's doctrine on honest banking and 
honest money. When he was Secretary of the Interior for four 
years he proved that he was a pioneer not only in the theory of 
reform, but in the practice also. The solidity of Carl Schurz's 
information, his independence, and his quality as a leader of 
thought are well illustrated by his early dealings with the subject 
of forestry. When he was Secretary of the Interior it was part 
of his business to make himself acquainted with the American 
forests and with the rapacious commercial organizations which 
were rapidly destroying them. He came into actual conflict with 
some of these organizations, and during his tenure of the Secre- 
taryship he set on foot the resistance to this wanton destruction 
which has since gathered force and is beginning to be effective. 
In an admirable address delivered before the American Forestry 
Association in October, 1889, Carl Schurz expounded clearly 
and completely the true doctrine of forest protection and preserva- 
tion, anticipating public opinion by many years, at a time when 
an advocate of such views had nothing to expect but ridicule 
and abuse. 

The nature of the other public causes in which he labored 
testifies to the same virtue in him of leadership based on idealism. 
In his later years he became an ardent advocate of arbitration in 
international disputes, and hence an expounder of the atrocities 
of war, of its demoralizing subsequent effects, and of its frequent 
futility in settling disputes. In his latest years he lent the whole 

[20l 



force of his reputation and his eloquence to the feeble minority 
which opposed the extension of the sovereignty of the United 
States over conquered peoples. Again he was true to his ideals 
and to the ideals of Washington and Lincoln. Like Washington 
he urged his adopted country to "observe good faith and justice 
toward all nations." Like Lincoln he believed that " our defence 
is in the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men in 
all lands." 

Carl Schurz was a thinker, a writer, an orator, and a doer — 
all four; and he loved liberty. St. James describes him perfectly 
in his General Epistle: "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of 
liberty and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer 
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed." 
This freeman, truly blessed in his deeds throughout a long and 
busy life, is the greatest American citizen of German birth. 



The Liederkranz Chorus, which had volunteered its services, 
then sang, under the direction of Mr. Arthur Claasen, its leader, 
Engelsberg's Meine Muttersprache. 



The Chairman: 

This occasion does not belong to New York, or to America, 
alone; Germany is entitled to, and claims, her fair share in it, 
and in token of that, I have the great honor of presenting to you 
Professor Eugene Kuhnemann, of the University of Breslau, now 
happily a visiting professor at Harvard, who will address you in 
his own and Carl Schurz's native tongue: 



[21] 



ADDRESS OF 
PROFESSOR EUGENE KUHNEMANN 



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SDeutfdje aber barf fpredjen iiber ben beutfd)en 9Jknn in ©arl ©d)ur3. 
(Sr ift geboren am beutfcfjen ©trome beg Seeing. Unoergeffene 
£>eimatr)gerinnerungen ftingen in einer feiner fd)bnften beutfd)en 9te= 
ben mieber: „mit roerjtniitf/iger fiuft benfen roir an bie griinen SDSaffer 
beg fjeimatfjlidjen SRt)ein§; in benen fid) bie alterggrauen, fagenum= 
roobenen SSurgen fpiegeln; mo bie eble Sraube gliirjt; mo ber Sftenfd) 
fro^ ift, aud) obne 3U mijfen marum; mo bag beutfdje 2ieb boppelt 
poetifd) fltngt; too bom 9?iebermalb bag SBilb ber ftegijaften ©ermania 
fo trotjig iiber bie ©reuse btidt; an bag fd)bne liebe £anb, Don bem 
jeber ftufc breit ung treuer ift." ©r mar ein $inb beg SSolfeg unb 

["] 



T)cit ba§ geftatten= unb farbenreicfje JBilb be§ beutfdjen S3oI!e§ jener 
3eit in bie linbltdje ©eele begierig aufgenommen. S^ocf) tebten bie 
£>elbeniiberlieferungen be§ S3efreiung§iriege§. Unb an ben ©efpracb>n 
fluger banner am £>erbfeuer entir-irfelte fid) ber erfte pr)antafiet>olIe 
2tntr)eU an ber groften SDSelt. 2Iu§ bem Sftunbe be§ 5Sater§ tybrte er 
gum exften 2Jtole ban SBaffjington al§ bem ebelften £elben ber ©e= 
fcfjid)te. 6r ging burcf) bie beutfdje ©cfjulergiermng mtt irjret ©riinb* 
licrjteit unb tyrer bielfeitigen STnrcgung felbftftanbiger 23eftrebungen. 
(5t murbe al§ einer ber ^eurigften ergriffen t>on ben golbenen £off= 
nungen be§ $Sbi!erfrii^iing§ unb lebte „bem grofjen (Srtoedung&ja^te", 
roie er e§ genannt fiat, freubig entgegem ©o rourbe bie gange ©eele 
be§ fteiftigen jungen ©tubenten erfiiflt t>on bem ©ebanfen an fein 
Soil unb feine ftreirjeit. ©§ mar, al§ mcflte ber ©laube $riebrid) 
GcfjWerS fjiniiber mirien in§ politifdje Ceben. 2Iber ©dmrg entries 
aud) ben (Srnft, bie 2(ufopferung, ben Wlvitf). @§ mar fein ©laube 
ber 2Borte, fonbern ber Sfjaten. @t b>t bie SBaffen ergriffen unb 
in ber ret-olutionaren STrmee geiampft fiir bie 23olf§fteir)eit, nrie er 
ftc berftanb. SQSie ein £elbenlieb lefen fief) jene $apitet feine§ Ceben§ 
mit ber ttmnberbaren ftlucfjt au§ ber fteftung Staftatt. %n %ofytm 
ber erniicrjterung mufete er ba§ entfagenbe Ceben be§ $tiid)t(ing§ 
fiil)xen. 2Tber bie Opfertreue fiir ben ^reunb gait tr)m mefjr alS 
ba§ eigene Ceben. Surd) bie Sefreiung KtnfelS au§ bem 3ud)tf)au§ 
erroarb er europaifcfjen 3ftur)m, ben 9ftur)m, ben bie menfd)Iicf) guten, 
aufopfernben Sr)aten geben, unb mufete bod) farmer genug fief) meiter 
miifjen urn feine (griftcng. ffiie ift bie§ ^UnglingSleben xeict) an bem 
fdjbnften fteid,tf)um ber Sugenb: ber £ingabe be§ gangen Ceben§ an 
eine begeifternbe ^bee. 2)ie ftotr, be§ SSaterlanbeS tjat if)m fctn $u= 
genbleben gu einem fjinretfcenben ©ebicfjte gemad)t. 

£>a§ beutfcfje S3oIf t)ie§ bamal§ nod) ba§ SBolf ber 2)icf)ter unb 
2)enier. ©cfjurs aber erfdjeint un§ al§ ein ed)ter ©idjierjiingling, 
ber in feinem Ceben, in feinen Sfjatcn bicr)tet. Unb iiber bie raur)en 
©tbfte ber 2Birftid)feit fjinroeg tragi irm bie ©unft ber Sfftufe, bie 
feine ©eete erlefen fjat. ©einer §eibentf)at banite er bie Ciebe be§ 
Sfficibeg, ba§ if|m fein Ceben fcfjenfte. ^n bie neue £eimatrj feiner 
SOBa^l, nad) 5tmerifa brad]te er bie beutfd^e ©laubigfeit. S^m mar 
e§ ba§ golbene Canb ber biirgertid)en ^reir)eit. ©eine beutfd)e S3U* 

[23] 



bung ermbglicrjte iljm ba§ fctmefle Gnnget)en in bie frembe SBBelt ber 
engtifd)en ©prad)e. !£>ie beroeglid)e germanifcfje (5ct)bpferfraft tiefe 
ibn ein neue§ Seben finben in ben ©ebanfen grower bff entltc^er 2Bir!- 
famfeit fur ba§ amerifanifdje SSoli. DfcibtoS erfennen tr>it 2}eutfct)e, 
roie erft ba» neue SSaterlanb ibm bie grofeen 9ftbglici)feiten bot fiir bie 
nolle (Sntfaltung feiner ungerobr)ntict)en Hriifte. ©r rourbe einer ber 
erften unter ben ^iirjrern fetrteS 5solfe§. 

Seine ganse politifctje SSirffamfeit in 5Tmerifa roar getragen bon 
feinem beutfdjen ^bealismug. STmeriia follte [ein, fc rote er e§ 
glaubte unb liebte, ba§ Sanb ber 3Rect)t[cf)affenf)eit unb ©efe|Iid}feit, 
bie biirgerlid)e Sftepubtif ber aUgemeinen unb roabren $reir)eit, rote 
Sincoln e§ in fetnem £iebling£roorte au»gebriidt: „bie S^egterung be§ 
SSolrel, burd) ba§ SSotf, fiir ba§ 'Soli." 90todf)te man ir)n einen 2rau= 
mer fdftetten, er rief 3uriid: „3;^ale fmb gtcict) ben ©ternen. 2)u 
roirft fte nidjt mit ber £ianb beriibren, aber gteict) bem (Seefaljrer auf 
ben SMii'ten ber 2Baffer roafylft bu fte al» 5^1 rer / folgft itjnen unb er= 
reidift beine Seftimmung." SDiefer ^bealiSmusS crjeugte feinen DJtutr), 
ber, roie er [agte, ba» erfte Srforbernifj fiir bie ^ii^xerfdEjaft in einer 
grofjen Sadie iff. Gr ertjielt ibm bie Unabt)angigfeit, bie ba§ s Jted)t 
aHein sum Seitftern nat)m unb t)bb,er adjtete al§ bie ^orberungen ber 
^artei. Scnn nact) it)m roar e§ ftet§ ber unabbcingige ©eift, ber 
2IHe§ iiberroinbenbe ©inn fiir ^Pflidjt, ber ben 2Beg bract) fiir jeben 
grofjen gortfdiriii ber amertfamfdjen 0e[cbicbte. „2Bet)e ber SRepu- 
6lif, roenn fte oergeben§ Umfcbau Ijielte nad) 2ftdnnern, bie bie 
SSatjrbeit fuctjen ofyne 33oruttr)etIe, bie 2Baf)rf)eit fagen or)ne $urcr)t, 
roie fte fte t>erfter)en, mag bie SDQelt fte fjbren rooflen ober ntdt)t." (So 
roar fein gangeS bffenttict)e§ Seben ein einsiger SDienft ber ftttlicben 
^bee, in ber er 2Tmerifa'» ©rbfte unb 3 XI ^ urt ft fat), ein SDiertft, ber 
nicf)t erlat)mte, auct) roenn e§ buret) (Sdjmerjen, (Sinfamfett unb Snt* 
taufct)ung ging. <So t>on feinem (Sintreten fiir Cincoln, feiner Arbeit 
fiir bie (Sflaoenbefreiung, feinen 2Jiur)en urn ben SSieberaufbau be§ 
(2iiben§ an Bi§ 311 bem $ampf gegen bie Mangel ber 93erroaltung 
unb gegen Seftrebungen in bie ^erne, dcu benen er fcfilimme 2Bir- 
tungen fiir bie biirgerlictje Sdepublif befiircbtete. Un§ Seutfdje riifirt 
inmitten alter biefer Singe bie Sorge urn bie 2Salber, au§ tcr bie 
innige ftaturliebe be§ beutfct)en 9J?anne§ roie bie SBorauSftdjt be3 roei^ 

[2+] 



fen S3oH3tt>irtl}§ fpridjt. (Sr tear fid) feiber treu unb ba§ fyiejj Bet 
itjm, er mar feinen ^beaten ireu. ©o roanbten fid) bie Sfteben be3 
groften Sftebner§ in amet ©pradjen, roie ©djillet eg Don bem S3olt§= 
ergiefjer oerlangte, an ba§ S3efte ber menfdjlidjen Sfiatur. SDie 9ften- 
fdjen beftimmen ijiefj fiir ibm: bie 2Kenfd)en fjeben. Unb aud) son 
itjm gilt, it>a§ er ton feinem greunbe ©umner gefagt r}at: „£>inter 
aflem, ma§ er fagte unb tr)at, ftanb bie prad)iige 9Jcannlid)teit, bie 
man unfefylbar bjinburd) empfanb." 

3mifd)en Cincotn unb 23i3mard fief)t fiir un§ biefer groj^e SDeutfdj* 
5Irneritaner alS sinifcfjen ben grcfeten 23olf3= unb ©taatsfiifyrern neuerer 
3eiten unb in ber grbfeten gefdjidjtlidjen $rifi§ beiber hotter, gut 
Cincoln unb mit if)tn r}at er gearbeitet, in 58i§mard tjat er bie freitid) 
munberfame unb unermartete ©rfiittung feiner ^UnglingStraume er= 
lebt. 2lber fein atte§ biirgerlid) liberates §erg facing bod) fiir £in= 
coin meb>, „ben Dftann, ber nidjt nur torn niebrigften Urfprung war, 
fonbern aud] ber einfad)fte unb anfprud)'(ofefte ber SSiirger blieb unb 
er£)bf)t marb 3U einer 9flad)tfteHung otjne ©leidjen in ber ameritani= 
fdjen ©efdjidjte, ber, ber fanftefte ber ©icrblidjen, leine ^reatur let* 
ben fetjen tonnte of)ne Qualen ber eigenen SBruft, unb ber fid) plojjtfdj be- 
tufen fanb, ben blutigften fttieg gu fiit)ren, bet bie SftegierungSgetDalt 
tenfte, al3 etbatmungSlofe ©tdrfe bag ©efe£ be§ Sageg mat, unb bet 
bann S3o(f§geift unb S3otl3f}er3 gemann unb leitete burd) bie gotten 
©tjmpatfyien feiner 9?atur, ber t>orfidjttg=fonfert>atiD bon temperament 
unb ©emofmljeit bie plbtdid)fte unb alle§ fcrtfdjmemmenbe fociale 2fte= 
Solution unferer %t\t 3 U ^ ten fcefam, ber bie emfadje ©prad)e unb 
tanblidje 3Q3eife in ber t)bcf)ften ©teflung jcner (Spodje beibefyielt unb 
ben ©pott ber guten ©efeflfdjaft erregte, unb ber bann bie ©eele ber 
9ttenfdjf)eit ergittern mad)te mit ^eufcerungen Don rounberooller ©d)bn= 
rjeit unb ©rbfee, ber, in feinem Bergen ber befte greunb be§ befiegten 
©iiben§, ermorbet rourbe, roeil etn mafjnfinniger ganatiter ilm fiir 
feinen graufamften geinb natjm, ber in feiner 9flad)t iiber afle§ Wlaafy 
oerfpottet unb oerb,br)nt rourbe son gegneri[d)er Ceibenfdjaft unb auf= 
geregtem ^arteigeift unb urn beffen ©rab greunb unb geinb fid) fam= 
melten, irjn gu preifen, ma§ fie feitbem niemal§ aufgefjbrt t)aben 3U 
tr)un, al§ einen ber grbftfen ^tmeritaner unb ben beften ber 2ften= 
fdjen." $n 23i3matd'3 Sfyaten b>t ©d)urs t>teUeict)t mefjr mit ber ^an* 

[»5] 



tafte be§ 2)id)ter§ ba§ beraufd>nbe £>elbengebid)t gefefym. „2>a§ 
mar ein ©djaufpiel, mie ber einft fo oerfpottete beutfdje DUiidjel plb> 
lid) au§ bem ©d)lafe ermadite; mie er bie gemaliigen ©lieber xecfte; 
mie er fetnen ©djilb fdjttttelte, bafj er Hang mie aHe Conner be3 
$irmament§; wie ba3 ©tampfen feine§ %u$t§ ben 23oben ©uropa§ 
erstttern mad}te; mie er mit mdcfjtigem ©djmertfdjlag ben 
iibermiit^igen fteinb Dor fi#) hi ben ©taub raarf; mie er mit 
^ofaunenftimme auSrief: „ba§ gange ©eutfdjlanb foil e§ 
fern"; unb trie bie 9tten[c^eit ftaunenb aufblidte an ber riefigen 
§elbengeftalt." Db in bem 2Serf)aIinife 3U SiSmard bteQeidjt bie 
Srennung liegt gmifc^en ber jungen ©eneration 2)eutfd)Ianb» unb 
iljm, unb ob e§ eine Srennung genau ber gleidjen 2trt ift, bie ir)n 
oon ben jiingeren SSeftrebungen 5lmeri!a§ fdfjieb, moflen mir nur er)r* 
fiirdjtig fragen. lln§ fdjeint ba§ gange £eben§gefiir)l beg 2)euifdjen 
oerdnbert, feit mir im 3faicr)e kben aB einer ©rof>mad)t unb gleid>- 
beredjtigt neben bie rjerrfdjenben 5ftationen ber (Srbe getreten finb. 
S3ieIIeicr)t erneuert fid) baburcr) auct) ba£ S3erf)altnife ber S3iirger beut= 
fcfjen ©tamme§ §u ifjrem amerifanifdjen 2Sat)Ibatertanbe. 2)odj bleibt 
Sari ©crjurg ber grofje 5hi§brud ber 2eben§gemeinfd)aft groifdjen 
SImerita unb ©eutfd)tanb, er, ber ein ftlaffifer in ben ©pradjen 6et= 
ber Cdnber mar. Sffiie feiner mar er gum ipiiter unb S3orfprectjer 
alter 3 eu Q n ifT c biefer £eben§gemetnfdjaft berufen. 2)a3 germani= 
fdt)e Dftufeum in Sambribge garjlt ilm mit ftolgeftem Sftedjt a!3 ben 
erften feiner ^rdfibenten unb gebenlt mit ^reube feiner SSegruftungS* 
morte bei ber (Sinroeirjung. $n feinem grofeen ©inne rief er bie 
©eutfdjen 5Imeri!a§ auf, bie§ SQSerf gu r)egen unb 3U entmideln. Un* 
berminbert blieb bie beutfdje ^nnigteit feineS ©efiir)I§. 2H§ bent- 
fdfier 2)id)ier b>t er fein Seben befdjloffen. 2)enn bie 6rinnerun= 
gen feiner ^ugenb, bie englifd) 3U fdjreiben iljm unmbglid) mar, 
gebjbren 3U ben fdjonften $rofabid)tungen in beutfd)er ©pradje. 

2tn bem ©rabe toon ©arl ©djurg reidjen bie beiben 33'blfer in 
ber gleidjen Srauer fid) bie ^anb, ober fie legen beibe bie £dnbe an 
benfelben Rrana. ^W ofae Mtfrnutt) ftetji bie gflutterrjeimatr) 
uralte§ ©ermanenfd)idfal in iljm mieberrjolt, — baft in einem tt)rer 
beften ©blme ein ©tiid ttjrer ©efcfyidjte in einer fremben SOSelt ftcr) 
abgefpielt l)at. 2)enn ber ©efd)id)te freiber Golfer get)brt er an. ©ie 

[26] 



banft ibm, baft er tote roenige bie gjflt^t be§ Seutfdjen in ber 
grembe erfiMte, ba§ SSefte beutfcfien SDBefenS emgefcn 3" foffen in 
bie neue Ottenfcbbeit, bie, fdjeint e§, auf biefex (Srbe au§ ben alien 
9?ationen fid) bilben foil. Sn ber gemcinfamcn 5Ttbeit fiir biefe 
$bee ftnb bie beiben SSblfer obne ©egenfa| unb ©treit oerbunben. 
2)ant bem groften Sobten fiir feine Sreue! Ottancber SeutfdfcSlmeri* 
faner mirb in feinem ftamen ba§ ©eliibbe erneuern, roie er ba§ 
SScftc in beutfcber Sreue bingugeben, roenn aud) roenige mit ibm »ett* 
eifern tonnen an 3fteicrjtfium ber geiftigen ©aben. 3ft un§ bodj, 
al§ toaren bie beutfcben ©tamme§genoffen ber 3ufunft mebr nod) 
fdmlbig, al§ fte ber 23ergangenbeit geleiftet baben, ba ba§ erneute 
SSaterlanb aflem beutfcben SBefen ein neue§ Eraftgefiibl gab, unb 
e§ bem §eutigen urn fo met mebr gur <Pfticfit roirb, iiberaU auf ber 
@rbe fid) eingufe^en mit feiner Derjiingten, gangen beutfd)en ©eete. 
W6%t ba§ grofte S3orbitb bon $art ©cburg mit foldjem (5tad)el 
roirfen. £>ann roirb an i^m toafir roerben, toa§ er bon ©umner ge* 
fagt r)at: „£)btoobl fein Slorper in ber @rbe tiegt, lefet er fort in 
ben gefid^erten SRecfjten aHer, in ber 23ruberfd)aft be§ geeinten 23ol= 
fe§, in ber geeinten SRepubtif, unb inirb leben fiir immer." Unb 
mie er ntdjtS geliebt bat gleid) feinem neuen SSaterlanbe, begleitet 
ibn bann bi§ in§ ©rab, roa§ er al§ ba§ bocbfte ©tiid gepriefen: 
„(5§ giebt fein fd)bnere§ unb boUftdnbigere§ ©liic! in ber SQBelt, 
al§ bag Setoufttfein, gu bem ©tiide 2)erer, bie man tieb t)at, beige* 
tragen gu baben, obne einen anberen 2ob> gu berlangen als bie§ 
SSemufetfein." 



The Chairman: 

I have now the great pleasure of presenting to you the 
Honorable Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy, long 
closely allied with Mr. Schurz in the noble work of Civil Service 
Reform : 



[*?] 



ADDRESS OF THE 
HONORABLE CHARLES J. BONAPARTE 

A MONUMENT to Carl Schurz exists to-day, it exists, 
nay more, it lives, lives in the amended laws of his 
adopted country, lives in the enlightened thoughts and 
beliefs of Americans taught by him and those banded with 
him to know and cleave to the right in choosing public ser- 
vants for the people's work. Thirty years ago, when he was 
called into the counsels of President Hayes, so much of such 
work as fell to civil servants was in large part entrusted to 
men and women chosen, not because they were fit to serve 
the public, but because they were fit to serve politicians, and 
generally because they were fit for nothing else. Our public 
offices were then too often asylums for incompetency and ill 
repute, recruited in great measure, from the failures and out- 
casts of creditable callings, those too weak, indolent, and vicious 
to hold their own in any worthy field of competition. Every- 
where our politics, National, State, and Municipal, were de- 
bauched by the wide and unrebuked prevalence of a peculiarly 
mean and baleful form of bribery, the use of public employment 
to influence votes and reward party service; huge corruption 
funds were constantly accumulated by openly taxing the salaries 
of public servants for partisan use; and, as the most faithful 
service to the people could assure no one continued employment 
when partisan greed clamored for his place, so the most scandal- 
ous misconduct might be readily condoned if the culprit had 
" pull," or stood well with the dominant " machine." 

It is no abuse of emphatic language to say that the general 
acceptance of the "spoils " theory of politics by American pub- 
lic opinion, in other words, our acquiescence in the doctrine that 
public offices are not posts of trust, but mere means of private 
gain, in very truth, "spoils;" and therefore that any sensible 

[ 2 8] 



man is " in politics only for what he can get out of them," in 
those days constituted a great national disgrace and a great 
national danger. That disgrace has been largely redeemed, 
that danger has been in great part averted through a resolute 
and patient struggle, continued now for many years, amidst many 
disappointments, apostacies and failures, by a small number of 
men, who, in season and out of season, have cried out against 
the shame and iniquity of such doctrines and such practices, 
until they have gained the people's ear and awakened the people's 
conscience. To speak of these men is to think of Carl Schurz. 

He taught by example that a great Department of the Federal 
Government could be successfully administered on the principles 
of Civil Service Reform before there was a Civil League or 
Association to demand such a law. Restored to private life, he 
gave his aid to form the New York Association and the National 
League, and, from their organization to his death, contributed so 
zealously of his time, his talents, and his labor in their work that 
their history is his history, their merit his merit, their success his 
success. In well-nigh everything which has made for righteous- 
ness in the progress of this great reform, in our remedial laws, 
in our corrected customs, whether of administration or politics, 
in the growth of a strong and healthy public opinion, in the 
quickening of the Nation's sense of right, one who searches will 
find the influence, direct or indirect, evident or slightly veiled, 
of his earnest, persistent, and eloquent advocacy, will see the 
stamp of his work. 

He is dead, and the work is not yet done; but enough of it is 
done to make sure the doing of what remains to do, and what he 
did for it will live after him to aid those who for years, doubtless 
for more than one generation of men, must yet tread the path he 
trod ere they reach the goal to which he pointed. In every 
combat for honest government and pure politics, in every effort 
to give our country faithful servants, and, with and through such 
servants, rulers worthy of her greatness, his spirit will guide, his 
memory will inspire the men who strive for the right. Those he 
taught and led will pass on his teaching to such as they in turn 
must lead in the like struggle for the same ends; and when there 

[*9] 



shall be in America no man in any public employment for any 
other reason than because the man or men who put him there 
believed him of all who might be chosen best fitted to do well 
the work he would there have to do, when that time comes, 
there will have been rounded to full completion the most lasting 
and most fitting of monuments to the virtues and the services of 
Carl Schurz. 



The Chairman: 

We shall now have the pleasure of listening to a poem by Mr. 
Richard Watson Gilder. 

Mr. Gilder then read the following poem: 



[3o] 



I 



CARL SCHURZ 

N youth he braved a monarch's ire 
To set the people's poet free; 
Then gave his life, his fame, his fire 
To the long praise of liberty. 



His life, his fame, his all he gave 
That not on earth should live one slave; 
True freedom of the soul he sought 
And in that battle well he fought. 

He fought, and yet he loved not war, 
But looked and labored for the day 

When the loud cannon silent are 
And holy peace alone hath sway. 

Ah, what a life! From youth to age 
Keeping the faith, in noble rage. 
Ah, what a life! From knightly youth 
Servant and champion of the truth. 

Not once, in all his length of days 

That falchion flashed for paltry ends; 

So wise, so pure, his words and ways, 

Even those he conquered rose his friends- 

For went no rancor with the blow; 
The wrong, and not the man, his foe. 
He smote not meanly, not in wrath; 
That truth might speed he cleaved a path. 

The lure of place he well could scorn 
Who knew a mightier joy and fate; — 

The passion of the hope forlorn, 
The luxury of being great; — 

The deep content of souls serene 
Who gain or lose with equal mien; 
Defeat his spirit not subdued, 
Nor victory marred his noble mood. 

[3i] 



The Chorus of the Arion Society, which had also volunteered 
its services, then sang, under the leadership of Mr. Julius Lorenz, 
its conductor, Max Zenger's Gebet. 



The Chairman: 

I now have the honor to present to you Professor Hermann 
Schumacher, of the University of Bonn, where Carl Schurz was 
educated, now, happily, by exchange for a semester, a Professor 
in Columbia University: 



O] 



ADDRESS OF 
PROFESSOR HERMANN A. SCHUMACHER 

AMERICA, in whose beloved soil rests all that is earthly 
of Carl Schurz, is foremost in honoring him to-night. 
But as in his heart the love of his native land never 
ceased to rival his devotion to the American people, so the 
country, in which Carl Schurz was born and educated, also 
claims him as one of its greatest sons. 

As a member of the University of Commerce in the city of 
Cologne, where Schurz attended school, and as a Professor of 
the University of Bonn, where as a gifted and spirited student 
of twenty years he gave to his life its decisive turn, — from the 
native soil of Carl Schurz, where we so heartily hoped to wel- 
come him this summer at the unveiling of Kinkel's statue, I 
bring greetings of sympathy and good will. I am grateful to 
have the opportunity of paying on behalf of all Germany this 
tribute of love and admiration to the man whom we commemo- 
rate to-night. 

This memorial is of a unique character. It is the only 
instance of which I know where two nations join in celebrating 
one whose official position did not place him among the powerful 
of the land, and who cannot be regarded as merely a scientist or 
a man of letters, brilliant and profound as his writings are. 

What is it that two great nations admire and honor in this 
personality ? What explains the extraordinary influence, the 
great success of Carl Schurz? It may be summed up in the 
phrase: German idealism. 

This idealism of Schurz was, in the first place, an ethical 
quality. Never did personal interests exercise an influence upon 
his public acts. He formed his decisions with utter disregard of 
consequences. He showed in all his actions a heroic courage, a 
courage inherited from his noble mother. Even in his childhood 

\33l 



that is conspicuous. You remember in his memoirs, when, as a 
school-boy, he had to write a composition on the Battle of Leip- 
zig how he expressed his indignation at the political situation, 
although he knew that he would thereby incur the serious dis- 
pleasure of his teachers. As the boy, so the man. Although he 
had eagerly assisted in the election of Grant, he did not hesitate 
a moment to oppose with all his might those measures of the 
administration which he believed would be injurious to the 
American people. And perhaps the most remarkable instance 
of this unselfish courage is, when he advocated with unceasing 
energy the re-establishment of the suffrage in the South, although 
he clearly saw that he was thereby helping to create a democratic 
majority in Missouri and that he would in consequence lose his 
seat in the Senate of the United States. 

This same trait of chivalry is found everywhere: a vigorous 
fight for what he regarded as just and good, a fight with the 
splendid ardor of his enthusiastic spirit, with all the captivating 
force of his remarkable personality. As a result, many misappre- 
hensions and enmities were unavoidable, and it was as a poor 
man that there died the ablest and most influential of all those of 
foreign birth and foreign education who have made their home 
on this side of the Atlantic. 

But when we admire in Schurz the incarnation of what we call 
German idealism we regard not only the moral impulse which 
prompted him to decide all public questions without reference to 
his personal interests, but also the intellectual faculty of looking 
at all problems of practical life from the loftiest points of view. 
This Carl Schurz did in a most unusual manner. He believed, 
as he often emphasized, in the logic of things, in an over-ruling 
fatality, which stands above the power of majorities and of 
governments. "It is the close connection between cause and 
effect, between principle and fact," he explained — "a con- 
nection which cannot be severed and a clear knowledge of which 
is the only safe foundation of political wisdom." He was con- 
vinced that "what is nonsense in theory, will never make sense 
in practice." But from this he did not conclude that men could 
not intervene. On the contrary, he considered it the duty of 

[34] 



every upright man to lend himself with all his force to what he 
believed to be just and right. To the question, What is meant 
by the spirit of the age? he answered: "It is action, action, 
and action again." Action, spirited action in behalf of the 
general welfare, action for the benefit not only of the American 
people, but of all mankind, was the text of his long, eventful, 
and strenuous life. Schurz never tired of battling for his con- 
victions, against what he regarded as a hindrance to progress. 
Thus he became at an early age a revolutionist, struggling for 
the removal of political obstacles which, once accomplished, 
would open for the people, as he himself expressed it, new fields 
of inquiry, knowledge, and improvement, as a foundation on which 
to erect a solid structure of a broader and higher development. 
A fighter also he remained in this country, whose soil appeared 
to him so ideal a field for developing in absolute freedom all that 
is noble, progressive, and just in human nature. 

The characteristic peculiarity of Carl Schurz consists in the 
great variety of objects for which he was struggling and the great 
diversity of weapons which he handled so skilfully. Thus did 
he fight for political freedom, for a constitutional government in 
Germany, with the most daring revolutionary methods; thus he 
fought, still far more successfully, in this country, in his capacity 
as general, diplomat, and politician, for his high ideals of democ- 
racy, and especially for the freedom of the negro; thus he fought 
as your Secretary of the Interior, and ever since that time for 
Civil Service Reform and the merit system; thus he fought for 
the protection of the Indian, whom he so ardently desired to lift 
to the level of American citizenship, and for the preservation of 
the forests, which he loved with all the sentiment of his German 
soul. Wherever dangers seemed to arise in the marvelously 
rapid development of American life, he came boldly before the 
public to warn and to admonish, even in the face of an over- 
whelming opposition, not only of the people, but also of his 
friends. And he was always listened to. Although in official 
position but a few years, and never in constant connection with 
either of the large parties, he was for half a century a powerful 
factor in the life of the American nation, untiringly and success- 

[35] 



fully helping to strengthen the ethical forces in the great pro- 
cess of shaping public opinion. That was his unique position in 
the history of this country. 

Let us consider once more what an extraordinary attraction, 
what irresistible influence upon the opinions of his fellow- 
countrymen has been exercised by this man throughout his life. 
Historical proofs are not lacking. When he delivered his 
maiden speech, as a student in Bonn, the rector of the Uni- 
versity asked him his age. "Nineteen years," was the reply. 
"A pity," said the rector, "then you are too young to be 
elected to our new parliament." The same impression was 
Spielhagen's, our well-known novelist, who studied with Schurz 
at Bonn, and who wrote in his memoirs: " Schurz was the great- 
est oratorical genius I have ever met." 

An especially interesting illustration of his great captivating 
influence was once told to me by the curator of my university, 
Dr. von Rottenburg. It appears that Dr. von Rottenburg, when 
private secretary to Bismarck, was ordered, when a visitor re- 
mained too long, to send to the Chancellor a red portfolio indi- 
cating some urgent business, and, if this proved ineffectual, to 
repeat it, and, if still ineffectual, to announce the arrival of a 
special messenger from the Emperor. Schurz once paid a visit 
to Bismarck, and the red portfolio was, in accordance with the 
custom, sent in the first time, and after fifteen minutes the second 
time, but the official upon returning said to Rottenburg: " Don't 
trouble yourself any more, even the direct messenger from the 
Emperor will have no effect, the Chancellor has just ordered 
hock and cigars and the two gentlemen are enjoying themselves 
immensely." 

Nor is this personal influence of Carl Schurz apt to cease. 
As a model of self-denying idealism he will not only continue 
to live in the hearts of the great number of his friends and of 
the best of his American fellow-countrymen but in Germany 
also with the conflicting interests created by the astounding 
development of its industrial life, a man of Carl Schurz's 
type will become of more and more importance. For in the 
midst of the increasing conflicts of economic interests, solutions 

[36] 



in harmony with the general welfare can be found and enforced, 
not by routine politicians, but only by philosophical and wholly 
sincere men who are convinced that ultimately great ideas and 
not petty personal interests must govern the destinies of nations. 
And that is true of the political conflicts, not only within a nation 
but also between nations. Only broadminded and farsighted 
idealism can satisfactorily solve these important problems. And 
so we Germans shall cultivate the memory of the great man 
whom we mourn to-night as eagerly and as gratefully in our 
country as you will in yours. Thus Carl Schurz, even after his 
death, is destined to remain a mighty personal factor in shaping 
public opinion, in both of the countries to which his noble soul 
was patriotically devoted, — even after his death a powerful con- 
necting link between the two great peoples that ioin in commem- 
orating him to-night. 



The Chairman: 

You all know what a friend Carl Schurz was to the Indian and 
the colored man, how devoted he was to Hampton and Tuskegee ; 
and this memorial meeting would not be complete without the 
presence of Dr. Booker T. Washington, the President of the 
Tuskegee Institute and leader of his race, whom I have now the 
honor to present to you: 



[37] 



ADDRESS OF 
DR. BOOKER T. WASHINGTON 

THE details of the life and deeds of the late Honorable 
Carl Schurz are so well known as to call for no recital 
here. The most and least that can be done at this 
time is to emphasize the lessons to be gleaned from his life 
and call attention to the service rendered by him to the Indian 
and Negro races. My first acquaintance with Carl Schurz 
was gained when I was a student at the Hampton Institute 
in Virginia. He came to Hampton when Secretary of the 
Interior under President Hayes, to inspect the work of General 
Armstrong in the education of the Indians and to note the pro- 
gress of the Negro students. During that visit his striking per- 
sonality, which combined deep moral earnestness with strength 
of intellect, left in my mind an impression which has always 
remained with me, and which was deepened as I came to know 
Mr. Schurz better in later years. The impression made upon a 
poor student of another race — not long out of slavery — by the 
words and presence of this great soul, is something which I 
cannot easily describe. As he spoke to the Negro and Indian 
students on the day of his visit to Hampton, there was a note 
of deep sincerity and sympathy, which, with his frankness and 
insight into the real condition and needs of the two races, 
made us at once feel that a great and extraordinary man was 
speaking to us. He had a heart overflowing with sympathy for 
the two most unfavored races in America, because he himself had 
known what it meant to be oppressed and to struggle towards 
freedom against great odds. It is easier, however, from many 
points of view, to sympathize with a people or a race that has 
had an unfortunate start in life than it is to be frank and at the 
same time just — to say the word and do the thing which 
will permanently help, regardless for the moment of whether 

[33] 



words or acts please or displease. As Mr. Schurz stood before 
the Hampton students, it was plain that he was a man who 
had been able to lift himself out of the poisoned atmosphere of 
racial as well as sectional prejudice. It was easy to see that 
here was a man who wanted to see absolute justice done to the 
Indian, the Negro, and to the Southern white man. 

At the time when Mr. Schurz entered President Hayes's cab- 
inet, it was a popular doctrine that "the only good Indian was 
the dead Indian." The belief had gained pretty general accept- 
ance that the Indian was incapable of receiving a higher civili- 
zation. More than that, the Indian was being plundered of his 
lands, his rations, and was being used as the tool in a large 
degree to further the ends of unscrupulous schemers. It was 
easier to shoot an Indian than to civilize him. It has been easier 
to fight for freedom than work for the freedman. Easier to kick 
or down him than to lift him up. It was a period also when the 
Negro race was being plundered and deceived in reference to its 
vote. Not only this, when Mr. Schurz entered the Hayes cabi- 
net, the Negro was being in a large degree used as the tool of 
demagogues, and at the same time many influences were at work 
to alienate the black and white races at the South, regardless of 
the permanent effect on either. Against all this Mr. Schurz 
threw the weight of his great name and forceful personality. 
Few men in private or public life did more than he to clear the 
atmosphere and put all sections of our country sanely and unself- 
ishly at work for the highest welfare of the black and red races. 
Mr. Schurz was among the first to see that if the Indian was 
to be permanently helped, he must be taught to become an inde- 
pendent and willing producer, rather than an irresponsible recip- 
ient of the bounty of the general government. Hence, he was 
among the first to encourage agricultural and other forms of in- 
dustrial education for the Indians. He was among the first, both 
in his official capacity and as a private citizen, to aid General 
Armstrong at Hampton in his first attempt to give industrial 
training to the Indian in systematic way and on a large scale. I 
have said that he saw clearly into the needs and conditions of 
my race and its relations to the white race. Time permits 

[39] 



only three illustrations. One is found in his report to President 
Johnson in 1865. A second is an article printed in McClure's 
Magazine in 1903, under the title, "Can the South Solve the 
Race Problem?" A third instance of the sanity of his views was 
given some of us when a conference of the leaders of the Negro 
race was, a few months before his death, held in this building, 
to which our good friend, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, kindly brought 
him. None will forget how, for nearly an hour, he lifted us, as 
it were, into a new world, while there came from his lips such 
words of advice, caution, and encouragement as only he could 
speak. 

But he has passed from earth. My race, the Indian race, 
American life as a whole are the poorer. There never was a 
time when such men were more needed than at present. My 
own belief is that one such character encourages and makes 
possible in time many other characters of like strength and 
helpfulness. I do not despair. One great life makes possible 
many great lives. We need at present, when the question of 
races is occupying the attention of the world as has seldom been 
done, as never before, it seems to me, men of clear, calm view, 
and with the courage of their convictions. I am not discour- 
aged as to present conditions, nor as to the future. It is 
good to be permitted to live in an age when great, serious, 
and perplexing problems are to be solved. It is good to 
live in an age when unfortunate and backward races are to 
be helped, when great and fundamental questions are to be 
met and solved. For my part, I would find no interest in 
living in an age where there were no weak member of the 
human family to be helped, no wrongs to be righted. Men 
grow strong in proportion as they reach down to help others up. 
The farther down they reach in the assisting and encouraging of 
backward and unpopular races, the greater strength do they 
gather. All this is borne out in the character of the hero of this 
evening. Without oppression, without struggle, without the 
effort to grapple with great questions, such a great character 
could not have been produced. It required the white heat of 
trouble to forge such a man. 

[4o] 



Because Carl Schurz lived, the Germans in America are 
stronger and greater. Because he lived, my race is the richer, 
more confident and encouraged. The Indian race and my race 
are proud that they had the privilege of claiming as their friend 
so great a man as Carl Schurz. The great are never ashamed to 
assist the unfortunate or the unfavored. The usefulness of a 
great man can no more be limited by race or color than by 
national boundaries. Because of the friendship of such a soul, 
every Negro can be the more proud of his race. For myself,, I 
was never mce proud of being a Negro than I am today. If I 
had the privilege of re-entering the world, and the Great Spirit 
should ask me to choose the color and the race with which to 
clothe my spirit and my purposes, I would answer, "Make me 
an American Negro." 

Mr. Schurz never sought the popular side of any question, 
nor did he seek the popular race. One word embodied his whole 
philosophy of life — that word was Duty. 

Because he lived, we shall live better, more nobly. His 
spirit is still moving among us, and will continue to strengthen, 
to guide, and to encourage us now and evermore. 



A T the conclusion of the meeting, the Chairman announced 
/\ the purpose of the Memorial Committee to provide, 
X. \ through popular subscriptions, for an appropriate per- 
manent memorial to Mr. Schurz. From the funds secured the 
Committee will erect a monument in bronze — either a statue or 
otherwise, as may be determined when the artistic considerations 
have been weighed — and will provide, in such degree as the sub- 
scriptions permit, for the advancement, in Mr. Schurz's name, of 
some of the public work to which his life was given. 

[4i] 



CARL SCHURZ MEMORIAL 

NEW YORK COMMITTEE 

Joseph H. Choate, Chairman 

Gustav H. Schwab, First Vice-Chairman 

George McAneny, Second Vice-Chairman 

Isaac N. Seligman, Treasurer 

William R. Corwine, Secretary 



Edward D. Adams 
Felix Adler 
Henry Mills Alden 
A. Arns 

Emanuel Baruch 
John Bigelow 
Karl Bitter 
Emil L. Boas 
Franz Boas 
Udo Brachvogel 
Arthur von Briesen 
Karl Buenz 
William Lanman Bull 
e. l. burlingamk 
Charles C. Burlingham 
Silas W. Burt 
Nicholas Murray Butler 
Andrew Carnegie 
William H. Carpenter 
Edward Cary 
Leander T. Chamberlain 
Joseph H. Choate 
Hubert Cillis 



Samuel L. Clemens 
Grover Cleveland 
Charles A. Coffin 
Charles Collins 
Heinrich Conried 
Alford W. Cooley 
William R. Corwine 
John D. Crimmins 
Edward Curtis 
R. Fulton Cutting 
Frank Damrosch 
Horace E. Deming 
William Demuth 
Richard H. Derby 
A. von Duering 
George Ehret 
Charles S. Fairchild 
Austen G. Fox 
A. S. Frissell 
Richard Watson Gilder 
Elliot H. Goodwin 
Samuel Greenbaum 
Francis Burton Harrison 



[43] 



George Harvey 
Theodore Henninger 
Henry Hentz 
Henry Holt 
William B. Hornblower 
William D. Howells 
Archer M. Huntington 
A. Jacobi 
D. Willis James 
William Travers Jerome 
Francis P. Kinnicutt 
Hermann K.\ aim- 
Antonio Knauth 
Hans Kudlk h 
Ernst Lemcke 

Gustav Lindenthal 

John T. Lockman 

James Loeb 

Seth Low 

George McAneny 

S. S. McClure 

St. Clair McKelway 

Hamilton Mabie 

Charles R. Miller 

Jacob F. Miller 

Robert Shaw Minturn 

J. Pierpont Morgan 

Levi P. Morton 

Ludwig Nissen 

Robert C. Ogden 

Alexander E. Orr 

Walter H. Page 

Albrecht Pagenstecher 

Alton B. Parker 

John E. Parsons 

George Foster Peabody 



Henry Phipps 
Henry C. Potter 
Joseph Pulitzer 
George Haven Putnam 
Herman Ridder 
Carl Schefer 
William Jay Schieffelin 
Charles A. Schieren 
Jacob H. Schiff 
William Schramm 
Arthur Schuler 
Gustav H. Schwab 
Isaac N. Seligman 
Albert Shaw 
Edward W. Sheldon 
Edward M. Shepard 
George von Skal 
William M. Sloane 
Charles Stewart Smith 
James Speyer 
Julius Stahel 
Edmund C. Stedman 
William R. Stewart 
Anson Phelps Stokes 
Isidor Straus 
Oscar S. Straus 
Spencer Trask 
Oswald GarrisonVillard 
Paul M. Warburg 
Max A. Wesendonck 
Everett P. Wheeler 
Alfred T. White 
Horace White 
Alfred A. Whitman 
Stewart L. Woodford 
August Zinsser 



[44] 



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